Toulouse, all was remembered. And while among the
old Peninsulars the military ardor was so universally displayed, among the
regiments who had not shared the glories of Spain and Portugal, an equal,
perhaps a greater, impulse was created for the approaching campaign.

When we arrived at Cork, the scene of bustle and excitement exceeded
anything I ever witnessed. Troops were mustering in every quarter;
regiments arriving and embarking; fresh bodies of men pouring in; drills,
parades, and inspections going forward; arms, ammunition, and military
stores distributing; and amidst all, a spirit of burning enthusiasm
animated every rank for the approaching glory of the newly-arisen war.

While thus each was full of his own hopes and expectations, I alone felt
depressed and downhearted. My military caste was lost to me forever, my
regiment many, many a mile from the scene of the coming strife; though
young, I felt like one already old and bygone. The last-joined ensign
seemed, in his glowing aspiration, a better soldier than I, as, sad and
dispirited, I wandered through the busy crowds, surveying with curious eye
each gallant horseman as he rode proudly past. What was wealth and fortune
to me? What had they ever been, compared with all they cost me?--the
abandonment of the career I loved, the path in life I sought and panted
for. Day after day I lingered on, watching with beating heart each
detachment as they left the shore; and when their parting cheer rang high
above the breeze, turned sadly back to mourn over a life that had failed in
its promise, and an existence now shorn of its enjoyment.

It was on the evening of the 3d of June that I was slowly wending my way
back towards my hotel. Latterly I had refused all invitations to dine
at the mess. And by a strange spirit of contradiction, while I avoided
society, could yet not tear myself away from the spot where every
remembrance of my past life was daily embittered by the scenes around me.
But so it was; the movement of the troops, their reviews, their arrivals,
and departures, possessed the most thrilling interest for me. While I could
not endure to hear the mention of the high hopes and glorious vows each
brave fellow muttered.

It was, as I remember, on the evening of the 3d of June, I entered my hotel
lower in spirits even than usual. The bugles of the gallant Seventy-first,
as they dropped down with the tide, played a well-known march I had heard
the night before Tal